Second Road Trip Report and Photo Essay
What an incredible week.
Thank you for reading my second road trip report. Traveling across America with my son Maxx! Still no fishing, so I hope it’s worth your time!
Monday Maxx and I left Amarillo. Before heading west we made a detour to visit Palo Duro Canyon, the country’s second largest canyon, in a state park south of Amarillo.
We all love maps!
In the canyon.
A view along our hike.
Another view during the hike.
Yucca plants thrive all through the southwest.
View from the top- of the canyon.
These dried flowers were all over the canyon.
The walk made Betty a little thirsty. Photo by Maxx Kumiski.
We drove through and then took the dogs for a walk. Pretty spectacular way to spend a morning, any time.
We then headed back to I-40, hoping to make Albuquerque. The sky was cloudless most of the way, but the wind was howling. We’re carrying a canoe. Several times we had to stop and tighten the tie-down lines, something I rarely need to do. We made it to Albuquerque without any major incidents, though.
Dinner was at a mom-and-pop Mexican restaurant. There are 215 Mexican restaurants in Albuquerque! The menu was in Spanish, the proprietors from Oaxaca. I had a chicken breast in mole sauce, it was the best I’ve had. Hooray for mom and pop!
Tuesday morning we went to the Petroglyph National Monument and took a brisk (temperature-wise) hike with the dogs, checking out the basalt boulders along the way.
Some of the hundreds of petroglyphs we saw.
The trail we took overlooks Albuquerque.
More petroglyphs…
Maxx photographed some, too.
Hundreds of years ago native Americans etched hundreds of figures onto some of the rock faces here. They were most likely not thinking of me coming along with a camera. Along the way we saw a few jackrabbits and several road runners. Neither of us had ever seen one, pretty neat.
Then it was back into the car. Poor Bruce is still in the cat carrier. He uses us for bounce toys while we try to sleep, though.
In the afternoon we stopped at Petrified Forest National Park. It was cold, about 40 degrees. It was windy, 25 with gusts. In spite of this we went on another hike with the dogs into the Blue Mesa Badlands.
Maxx photographs a fossilized tree trunk.
Everyone is looking pretty chill-ly.
Here’s a fossil log, about to take a tumble.
We were looking at fossil logs of trees that grew during the Triassic. If we weren’t freezing our buns off it would have been super enjoyable. As it was it was still very cool. I’d like to return when the weather was nicer.
Wednesday turned out to be quite the interesting day. First we stopped at Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood Company in Holbrook, Arizona. It ought to be called the Petrified Wood Superstore. It’s a museum, art gallery, furniture store, and rock shop all rolled into one. You can spend a few cents or tens of thousands of dollars here, on the coolest stuff you will ever see. If you can’t check out the store, check out the photos.
Gray’s had hundreds of fossil logs like this.
He also has furniture of all kinds, made with petrified wood.
Fossil fish, anyone?
This was in the restroom, over the urinal. Good way to get your attention!
After that we drove west, stopping at the meteor crater west of Flagstaff. Admission for an adult is $22. Twenty-two bucks to see a hole in the ground? Heck yes, and well worth it, too. Again, it’s a museum. And the crater almost defies description. I was not prepared for how vast it was.
The meteor that did this was 150 feet in diameter. The hole is almost a mile across.
The view from the crater’s edge, looking the other way. Lots of empty space out in Arizona!
Then it was back in the car, heading west.
At Kingman we got off I-40 and took Route 66, stopping at Oatman, an old gold mining town gone tourist trap. It’s a tourist trap done right, a town with both character and burros, lots of burros.
Atman is also known as Jackass Junction because of the burros.
We didn’t eat there!
You can buy burro food if you want to make friends.
Then it was back in the car to Needles, California. We crossed the Colorado River and now are in the Golden State. The price of gasoline jumped almost two dollars a gallon.
Thursday we traversed the Mojave Desert National Monument, stopping briefly at Kelso Dunes and then again at Teutonia Peak, up which we hiked. The cacti and Joshua trees were magnificent. They thrive in such a tough environment, and they are beautiful besides.
At Kelso Dunes. Photo by Maxx Kumiski.
A view in the Mojave Desert. Photo by Maxx Kumiski.
I do not know what kind of cactus this is. Photo by Maxx Kumiski.
We hiked through a Joshua tree “forest”.
The rosette at the end of the Jshua tree branch reminds me of Spanish bayonet, to which it is related,
When we finished our hike we drove to Bakersfield and then to Porterville, arriving at about 2000 hours, pretty beat. We spent the night there.
Friday we took the day off from driving and went hiking off of CA 190, in Giant Sequoia National Monument. Those trees are the most majestic and magnificent things I have ever seen. I cannot believe anyone would cut them down. People who would do that worship money way more than they worship God.
I’m inside a tree. Photo by Maxx Kumiski.
The monument is in the Sierra Nevada. There are lots of streams, some with trout.
A fallen redwood makes a handy bridge.
I love the reflections, I love the music, I love these streams!
This is a giant sequoia.
This is a more giant sequoia, the fifth largest tree on earth.
The Stagg Tree has way more than character- a detail of the bark.
We went to see the Stagg Tree, the fifth largest tree on the planet, estimated to be 3000 years old. I don’t know how to photograph something like that, that begins to do it justice, particularly with the little point-and-shoot camera I’m carrying on this trip. I hugged the giant for a long time, tears running from my eyes. It was quite literally a religious experience. I am not worthy…
We dined at a little Vietnamese restaurant. The ambiance was not there, but the food was delicious, outstanding, something we needed after the past couple dinners!
And that’s my second road trip report and photo essay. Thanks for reading it!
Life is great and I love my work!
Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go Fishing!
John Kumiski, author of Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide
Purchase Fishing Florida by Paddle- An Angler’s Guide at http://www.spottedtail.com/fishing-florida-by-paddle/
All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2020. All rights are reserved.
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